WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:04.160 Today we begin our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:07.839 This is reading from Mark chapter one, verses one through eight. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:24.160 It says, The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:30.320 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness, and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:38.640 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:48.399 Now John was clothed with was clothed with camel's hair, and wore a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. 00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:56.159 And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.640 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:01.840 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:03.119 Please be seated. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:05.120 Thanks for joining us this morning. 00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:06.480 My name is James Rathman. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.200 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:09.519 --> 00:01:18.799 I haven't been here in a while, though, uh because my wife and I welcomed our second into the world, which is really wonderful. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.120 It was a lot of work from me. 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:27.920 Her name's Mabel Jean, and uh she's been a wonderful baby, and we're very excited. 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.439 We doubled our kids uh since we were here last. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:35.599 Um uh yeah, but it sounds like I missed out on a lot of great things. 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:42.159 Uh John and Ryan preaching, which was wonderful, and uh it sounds like the day in the park was really fun. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.280 Uh that got great reviews, so we're probably gonna do more of that. 00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:50.799 Um it's always good when you go away and then there's no preaching and people are like, we loved that. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:55.920 So I'm really glad, really glad to be back uh here. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:57.040 Yeah, there we go. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:01:58.400 Nice, nice. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:04.319 Uh okay, so before we jump into today's text, uh we've got uh a couple of announcements to make. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:05.519 Uh so stay with me. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:08.800 I know that's like a way of saying, okay, I'll not listen now. 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:10.400 Uh, but we've got some announcements. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:14.560 So announcement number one, uh redemption group signups are open. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:15.520 They have started. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:23.360 If you would still like to be a part of one of those, you can go to groups in the app or connect on the website, and you can sign up for Redemption Group. 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:26.319 It's a great way to be connected at our church. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:35.360 We say we gather large, which we should say we gather medium-sized, uh, and we gather online and we gather small, but it doesn't have as much of a ring to it. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.759 So we probably won't adopt that phrase. 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:49.439 Next, uh a week from today, next Sunday, immediately following the service, we're having a town hall to discuss changes that are taking place in Redemption Kids. 00:02:49.599 --> 00:02:59.199 So if you are interested to know changes that are taking place in Redemption Kids and where we're headed with that as a ministry, then join us after immediately after the service. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:04.319 Uh, we'll probably just stick around in here and we have announcements regarding that. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:11.439 Uh so if you're uh interested in Redemption Kids, volunteer there or have kids, please stick around. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:17.759 Uh, if you're online, uh, you know, this just occurred to me we may want to find a way to where we can stream that as well. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:20.719 So we'll probably just be able to continue streaming that if you're online. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:26.719 Uh we'll we'll provide a way to join further news this week. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:34.000 Uh our uh we had a uh a study that is concluding this Wednesday. 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.599 It was just it was a four-week-long study that's concluding this Wednesday. 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:45.199 It was called Your Place in the Story of Redemption, which Zach has informed me is too long of a name for a study. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:49.199 Uh but uh it it how's that been for those of you that have been there? 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:49.759 Good? 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:50.479 Snaps? 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:50.800 Good? 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:51.439 Thumbs up? 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:52.240 Yeah, nice. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:53.360 How sanctified are you? 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:54.000 One to ten. 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:56.800 Ten, yeah, off the charts. 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:58.400 Yeah, incredible. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:00.240 Those that didn't come, we don't know. 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:00.800 It was five. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:01.919 Yeah, probably about five. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:02.319 Yeah. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:07.919 Um but in terms of sanctification, we're getting great numbers, really Mediclorean counts are off the charts. 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:11.599 And uh we have a new study that's beginning. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.800 It's the same format, another four-week long study. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:16.639 It's going to take place on Wednesdays. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:20.560 We provide food and childcare for this study. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:29.279 And this one, uh, rather than capturing the big picture narrative of scripture, for this next study, we're focusing on prayer. 00:04:29.519 --> 00:04:31.600 And the study is just called prayer. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.920 But the focus is prayer and emotional health. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:37.600 That's what we're focusing on. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:42.160 How does prayer relate to our emotional health before the Lord? 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:45.759 How is it that prayer can make us steadfast when we need to be steadfast? 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:50.000 It can draw us into the real experiences that we have in the world. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:55.279 And how does God use our emotions to connect us with Himself? 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:58.560 We typically treat emotions as something to be avoided. 00:04:58.720 --> 00:05:03.199 You know, they're the last car in the train or something to be hidden from. 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:09.920 But the psalmists treat emotions as something to be felt and exposed before the face of God. 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:12.480 And we do that in our prayer. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:13.680 So join us. 00:05:13.759 --> 00:05:20.079 It's going to be a pretty practice-heavy study, uh, and we're going to be learning how to pray. 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:23.120 Um all right. 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:29.279 The I'm sorry, my dad is wearing his mask in a ridiculous way to try and make me laugh, and it just made me laugh. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:34.079 Uh it worked. 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:35.920 I couldn't not reference it. 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:36.480 Okay. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:37.439 Final, final. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:39.600 So sign up for that study uh as soon as you can. 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:40.879 It begins October 2nd. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:41.279 Okay. 00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:44.319 October 2nd is the beginning of that study, which is actually pretty soon. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:50.000 Lastly, our first members meeting will be October 11th, right after the service. 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:57.839 So if you are not a member, but you would like to be, uh email us at info at redemption denver and you can begin the membership process. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:05.279 If you started the process but haven't completed it, then now is the time to do that before this first members meeting on October 11th. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:08.240 Okay, let's begin our series in Mark. 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:08.959 Let's pray. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:17.600 Holy Father, we thank you for uh your many blessings for us as a body and it and your provision for our community. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:27.040 We we pray that uh you would help to draw us together around your word and that we would be a people that are shaped by your word, Lord God. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.079 Uh, would you show us to yourself this morning? 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:32.720 We have this up in Jesus' name, amen. 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:37.279 So we're beginning our series in Mark. 00:06:37.519 --> 00:06:38.560 A little context. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:51.279 We did Genesis, the first 10 chapters in the spring, and we went over the book of James in the summer, and this fall we're going to be doing Mark, and this will take us up into the holidays. 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:55.680 And then next spring, we're going to do the next 10 chapters of Genesis. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.079 Next summer, we're going to do something. 00:06:58.319 --> 00:07:03.439 And then next fall, we'll return to Mark to move through what will be the next four chapters. 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:09.759 So this fall, we're going to start the next the first four chapters of the Gospel of Mark. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:24.560 Now, my intention, my hope as we move through this is it was considering, okay, around the fall, we're gonna be, you know, moving into the neighborhood and uh introducing ourselves to the community. 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:33.439 And what's the best way to get introduced to Christianity, to gain this understanding, it's to look at Jesus. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:42.160 And so our purpose for this study is to have a clear, focused look at the person of Christ as he's revealed to us in Mark. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:53.199 Now, for the last 200 years of scholarship around the Gospels, it has been really colored by what's been called the search for the real Jesus. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.360 Now, the search for the real Jesus often looks like this. 00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:05.600 It says, okay, we obviously can't take the Gospels, the scripture, as historical record because there's all sorts of crazy things in them, right? 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.519 There's miracles and someone comes back from the dead in the end. 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:19.920 Instead, we need to use these as guideposts that we can kind of use as clues to look behind and discover who the real Jesus is. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.680 That's the Jesus of history who actually existed. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:28.480 You know, that's the Jesus that you see on the cover of National Geographic occasionally. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:33.919 And they just did some genetic discovery and they're like, okay, this is what Jesus looked like. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:41.279 You know, that's the Jesus of history, the history channel Jesus, the National Geographic Jesus, the popcultural Jesus. 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:54.799 Now, what that project resulted in, this search for the real Jesus, was oftentimes a Jesus who ended up looking like a mirror image of the one doing the searching. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:10.720 It's interesting how when you look behind the biblical text and you're looking for the real Jesus who's back there, what happened is people who had a materialist worldview that didn't see anything spiritual, well, they discovered that Jesus, the real Jesus, what do you know? 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:12.240 He was a materialist. 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.639 And he didn't have a spiritual worldview. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:18.559 People who were pacifists discovered, hey, you know what Jesus really is? 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:20.320 He's really a pacifist. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:25.200 And people who were universalists discovered, hey, you know who the real Jesus of history is? 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:27.360 Well, he's really a universalist. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:30.159 Do you see how this project kind of developed? 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:39.600 So what we get is a record of this search for the real Jesus that's more like a personality test of the person doing the searching. 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:44.399 And so that sort of vein of critical scholarship has really deteriorated. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:51.759 And it especially deteriorated since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which revalidated the authenticity of the original record. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:10:06.000 But here's the thing: it's easy to look back on a project like that, on this at the search for the real Jesus, and think, well, obviously they're just gonna find someone that looks just like them. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:12.000 But it's more difficult to discover when we do that very same thing ourselves. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:18.080 Where when we're looking at Jesus, we're just finding someone who constantly agrees with us. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:24.240 In fact, this idea of seeing Jesus in the text is something that we don't often do. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:37.679 Jesus, to us, is someone who's such a part of our culture, he's such a background character, an influence in all of our thinking, that it's easy for us to think, Jesus, of course I know who that is. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.320 I obviously know who Jesus is. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:45.279 And because I just kind of absorb him throughout my life. 00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:51.440 I'm just exposed to different takes on Jesus and to who he is just by living in the world. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:11:01.120 So he becomes someone that we're so familiar with that we think, okay, I don't actually need to do any looking at him to know who he is. 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:09.679 He's like the most important figure of the 20th century, or he's like the best movie ever made, or he's the best book ever written. 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:12.960 You know, we don't watch Citizen Kane because we don't need to. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.320 We just know, yeah, that's the best movie ever, so no need to see it. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:17.039 Done. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:23.200 We don't read War and Peace because it's too long, and we don't need to, right? 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:24.639 We just like, yeah, it's good. 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.200 War and Peace, it's a yeah, it's a good novel. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:28.000 Check. 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:29.840 Don't need to read it. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:36.639 Uh we don't uh we don't read Mark Twain, we just quote him, right? 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:40.000 He's just yeah, one person pointed themselves like I do. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:51.519 Uh so alright, one of us reads Mark Twain, but there's uh uh but we think, okay, we just kind of absorb this character. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:54.080 So we don't need to really engage with them. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:59.279 What that means is that Jesus becomes a sort of caricature of Jesus. 00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:02.799 It's it's a cultural impression of who this person is. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:12.320 Put in more personal terms, I think many of us relate to Jesus like we relate to a grandparent who we don't really know, right? 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:16.639 It's like, well, they just fit this category of grandma or grandpa. 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:18.240 It's like, well, tell me about them. 00:12:18.399 --> 00:12:21.120 It's like, I don't, I don't really know what to say. 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:26.080 You know, I can't describe what their personality is really like, what their likes or dislikes were. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.799 I don't know what their relationship was like with their parents. 00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:30.879 I don't even know their parents' names, you know. 00:12:30.960 --> 00:12:36.320 I don't know whether they got nervous when they first went to school or whether they liked the career that they had. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:42.320 We know them in these categorical, broad strokes, these impersonal ways. 00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:50.559 And what's heartbreaking about that is the real grandparent wasn't behind the grandparent that you knew. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.960 The real grandparent was just right there. 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:55.919 And they could have just been a question away. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.840 Did you get nervous before you went to school when you were a kid? 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:01.360 What what were your teachers like? 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:02.879 Did you have a favorite one? 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:13.600 You know, they could just be a question away, and all of a sudden you're getting to know the real person that has angles and details and things that you understand and things that you don't understand. 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:20.720 You could have found them repulsive or you could have found them fascinating, but you would have found them. 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:27.600 Mark's gospel, what he's presenting to us, is Jesus. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:46.720 Not so that we can look behind the text and find the real spiritual meaning of Jesus, but so that we can see Jesus, encounter him as he is, asking those questions so that we might get to know this real person of Christ. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:53.120 That's the project of Mark's gospel, so that we can really see who Jesus is. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:14:04.480 Mark was written by Mark, uh, but Mark wasn't one of the apostles who lived with Jesus. 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.039 So what is he doing doing the writing? 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:11.360 Well, Mark, the letter was written around AD 65. 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:17.440 Um, so that's about 30 years after uh Christ ascended into heaven. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:25.120 And it was written as a way of cataloging the remembrance of Peter. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.679 So Mark is a disciple of Peter, and they're in Rome at the time. 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:34.159 And Mark is kind of commissioned to write down all of Peter's memories. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:38.879 And so Mark is the author, but in a sense, this is really Peter's gospel. 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:52.879 And so we get this up close, personal from one eyewitness account, from one who was with Jesus on the earth, so that we might encounter who the Christ is, who Jesus is. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:55.279 Mark gives us that in this gospel. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:14:58.879 That's our purpose. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:05.679 Which leads us to the first words of Mark's gospel. 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:11.360 This morning we're just looking at verse one of Mark's gospel. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:14.480 And it says this Mark 1:1. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:20.320 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.639 All right, you're gonna have to listen closely. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:30.240 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:40.480 Mark does not put forward some sort of enigma or some sort of riddle for us to crack to discover who the real Jesus is. 00:15:40.879 --> 00:15:42.639 Mark is explicit. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:51.679 He's stating his thesis right out of the gate of who the what the identity of Jesus is, who the Christ is. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.559 And he cannot state it in higher terms. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:57.600 You know, this is beyond an expose of a person. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:01.759 This is beyond a polemical argument for who somebody is. 00:16:01.919 --> 00:16:04.320 This is beyond a biographical introduction. 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:07.679 You know, this is the most important author of the 1900s. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:10.320 Well, wow, what an incredible, amazing thing to say. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:12.559 Okay, now make your case for that. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:13.679 What's the influence? 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:15.440 How many people cited this author? 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:18.320 What were the influences that this author had on the world? 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:23.679 Think of how much stronger the thesis is that Mark is making now. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:31.759 This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, comma, man, that comma's doing a lot of work. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:33.600 The son of God. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.000 That's my thesis, Mark says. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.440 In the rest of the book, he's building that case. 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:48.159 How do you argue that someone is the son of God? 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:51.120 How do you make that case? 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:53.840 What is he gonna have to show us of Jesus? 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:00.399 What would it mean to have spent time with someone like Peter did, and to leave and think, you know who that was? 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:04.000 To walk out of the room and think, do you know who that was? 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.240 That was the Son of God. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:10.000 All the authority that the Father has is that person's. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:15.119 Do you hear the absurdity of the case that's about to be made? 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:17.200 This is quite a way to start a book. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:22.160 I don't know how you, you know, what word do you have for this genre? 00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:26.400 Well, the word that we use now because of this sentence is the word gospel. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:32.000 We call it a gospel when they're arguing that this Christ is the Son of God. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:39.680 But let's just move through these words of this verse to see what Mark is arguing. 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:45.119 What is this claim that he is making about the person of Jesus? 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.759 Let's look at the words, not behind them. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:51.519 The first is the beginning. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.599 Mark begins his gospel by saying the beginning. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:17:57.119 It's a quotation. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.839 It's where we started the year in our sermons. 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:01.680 It's in Genesis 1:1. 00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:16.640 Now he starts there because he's saying to understand Jesus is to not just understand a new character that has entered into the world, like Mabel, my daughter, was born into the world. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:21.279 And now she's here as another part of it, one among many like us. 00:18:21.599 --> 00:18:24.480 No, but this is a new beginning. 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:29.599 Christ's entrance into the world means that something has restarted. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:36.480 This is a new understanding of creation itself by the entrance of Christ in the world. 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:45.599 This is a paradigmatic shift where the way that we had viewed the world before Christ and after Christ are now different. 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:48.880 Something fundamental to creation has changed. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:50.880 This is a new beginning. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:58.559 It cracks me up because you read modern like scholarly articles or histories and things, and we've switched from B C to A D. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:00.880 Now we say, does everybody know? 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:03.039 Yeah. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:04.799 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:12.160 We say B C E and C E, which is before the common era and common era. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:14.240 And it's it's it's hilarious. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:19.680 I always try and do it when I write papers for seminary because it's just kind of funny. 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:23.920 Because in seminary, we all agree that Christ, you know, is where the turning point is. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:29.440 But I love that academia was just like, oh, you, you know, it's just the common era. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:34.880 We'll just remove Christ from the story and we'll just call it before the common era, and then afterwards we'll call the common era. 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:38.319 And it's funny because they kicked the can, just one question back. 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:40.799 And it's like, well, what defines the common era? 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:47.200 And then the answer is like, well, it happens to coincide with Jesus. 00:19:47.519 --> 00:19:51.279 But uh yeah, we just moved, but we can move one step back. 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:55.519 You know, it's a new beginning. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:59.519 We live in a world that counts down to him and then counts up from him. 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:02.000 A new beginning. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:05.279 Next says the gospel. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:10.799 There's a document that dates to the 9th century BC. 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:18.720 Uh that is uh just within uh uh almost a decade of Jesus' birth. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:26.960 And it cites Caesar Augustus and it describes the birth of Caesar Augustus, which took place in 63 BC. 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:31.119 And the birth of Caesar Augustus is announced as a gospel. 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:32.960 That's the term that's used. 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:35.119 It means good news. 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:38.960 And the way that the term is typically used is like the birth of a king. 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:40.640 You know, this is good news. 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:42.480 The the new king is born. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:46.640 It's like the t how the Today Show is obsessed with the royals for some reason. 00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:57.759 And how the k they announce these births as this good news, but the way that the word gospel is used there, and in every other place that it's used, it's used plural. 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:02.799 So that means the connotation is here's some good news. 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:06.720 Here's some good news among other good news. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:16.240 Mark, when he describes Jesus and the good news of Jesus, it's singular. 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:21.839 Here is the good news. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:24.960 You know, look at the news. 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:30.880 What could we possibly how could we possibly have anything other than some good news? 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:36.319 You know, there's uh just consider our culture right now. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:44.240 What would even even if it was like, hey, today we found the cure for COVID-19, that would be some good news. 00:21:44.559 --> 00:21:48.079 Because there's still so much other turmoil that's taking place. 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:53.359 So that would be some good news, even something that's that high of a success. 00:21:54.799 --> 00:21:59.200 But then we consider he's saying this is the good news. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:08.240 All of the problems, all of the brokenness in creation is finds its solution in Christ. 00:22:09.279 --> 00:22:10.960 The good news. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.039 That's who Jesus is. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.599 Not some good news, but the good news. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:21.759 Next. 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:26.000 The beginning, the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:35.119 Jesus is a variant of the name Joshua, which means God is salvation. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:40.160 In his very name, he tells us his mission. 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.119 Jesus came to save. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:49.359 Jesus is the one who offers us his life as our salvation. 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:54.480 The promise of Jesus is that in him we might be saved. 00:22:54.720 --> 00:22:58.960 Jesus means God is salvation. 00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:06.000 And then what becomes operating as almost like a last name, but it's really a title is Christ. 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:11.200 Christ is a title which means the Messiah who is to come. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:12.799 He is the king. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:21.759 The king that was promised beforehand, who will come and he will bring liberty and justice to his people. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:29.599 Jesus is the God who saves and he is the king. 00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:40.480 Here we see in this two-word phrase, the gospel, that good news announced together, that Jesus is God who saves and he's the king. 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:43.920 He's the king who lays down his life for his people. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:55.599 In that, that those words, Jesus Christ, we see the heights of who this person is, and we see the outline of our book that we're looking at. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.240 We see the outline of the book of Mark. 00:23:58.559 --> 00:24:07.680 In Jesus, where we move through the first 10 chapters of Mark, we see Mark explaining to us that Jesus is the king. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:11.039 He is the Christ, the promised one. 00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:13.200 Look at the miracles that he performs. 00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:14.640 Demons listen to him. 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:16.960 Storms calm when he commands them. 00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:19.599 Sickness leaves when he tells it to leave. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:21.839 People come when he calls them. 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:35.200 He has returned to reclaim what is rightfully his. 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:37.200 And how does he do that? 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:38.480 Jesus. 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:41.599 God is salvation. 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:46.000 At the end, once we see that he is king, what does a king do? 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:48.640 They send armies out to fight on his behalf. 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:52.400 Jesus goes out to die on behalf of his enemies. 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:55.680 He sets his face towards Jerusalem. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:24:59.920 The king goes to bear the cross. 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.920 Because this king is salvation. 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:07.200 Jesus Christ. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.599 And finally, Son of God. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:19.759 All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:26.559 All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to this person. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:34.640 This is the description that we have throughout the New Testament of this reality that we call the incarnation. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:40.480 In, as in dwelling in carne, as in carne asada. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:45.359 As in flesh, right? 00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:48.000 Mnemonic device, that's what that's called. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:49.759 Now you'll remember. 00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:00.400 The incarnation. 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:02.480 What is the argument? 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:06.160 God became a person. 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:10.240 That's who Jesus is. 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:16.559 You know, let's go back to the first word, the beginning. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:21.519 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:23.599 What an amazing truth. 00:26:25.039 --> 00:26:34.079 This establishes a way that we view the world, which is that there is a God, and He's not the same as us, but He created this thing that we take place in. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:38.640 We're creatures underneath this eternal, transcendent, infinite God. 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:45.440 And yet He made us in His image that we might relate to Him and He still continues to relate to the world. 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.720 And so there's a God who's wildly transcends us. 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:51.039 He is eternal while we are in time. 00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.680 He is infinite while we are finite. 00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:02.160 And He creates out of the overflow of His love and glory all of existence. 00:27:02.480 --> 00:27:05.680 He loves the world into existence. 00:27:09.039 --> 00:27:12.559 Now that's an amazing thing to consider. 00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:21.359 You know, you can look out the windows and see the trees, and when you walk amongst them, you realize you're walking amongst the ideas of the living God. 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:38.319 And it's one thing to consider that this creator, this infinite being, made finite creatures like us, that we might enjoy and relate to him. 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:42.000 Oh, but it's another thing. 00:27:42.880 --> 00:27:57.680 It's something far more beyond our comprehension to think that that infinite creator became a creature. 00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:07.839 That that infinite God dwelt among us and took on flesh. 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:23.359 There's not a phrase in this opening sentence of Mark that doesn't destroy any category that your worldview might otherwise contain. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:33.920 In the beginning, he says, look, no, whatever world you thought you were living in, you're gonna need to start over because Jesus has entered it now. 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:35.759 It has changed now. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:36.640 Gospel. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:45.680 What problems you thought there were and what solutions you thought there were to them, the solution is Jesus. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:46.720 Saves. 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:49.039 How did you think you would justify yourself? 00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:54.319 How did you think you would make your life meaningful and find wholeness and completeness? 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:55.759 It is in Jesus. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:28:57.839 He is the God who saves. 00:28:58.079 --> 00:28:58.640 King. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:09.920 How would you relate to your existence as a creature and relate to your creator as the King who is Lord over your life and son of God? 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:15.359 God became a human. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:37.599 In his masterpiece work, this theologian Thomas Torrance, he wrote a book called The Incarnation, and he says this the only answer to man's predicament is the destruction of the power of evil and a recreation of the bond between God and man. 00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:39.279 Listen to this. 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:55.519 But if the first creation was the creation of man in the image of God, the recreation is through an act in which God condescends to take on himself the image of man. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:00.000 That's who Jesus is. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:09.359 John Calvin is another writer who we know so well that we need not read. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:23.839 And in his masterpiece, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, he begins with this question of, okay, what does it mean to know God? 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:35.200 And he says this he says, nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists in two parts. 00:30:35.759 --> 00:30:38.799 The knowledge of God and of ourselves. 00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:43.519 And he works this out in as many words as anyone could possibly work out. 00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:57.599 And uh but he's he's working out this interplay where he's saying, look, there the only way that we really know anything of any real wisdom is we know God and we know ourselves. 00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:05.839 And in learning about God, we're always simultaneously learning something about ourselves. 00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:15.759 And when we're learning something about ourselves, we're also simultaneously learning something about God. 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:18.880 Those two can't be teased apart. 00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:28.240 That's why it's so difficult to learn about God, because when you're doing it, you're wrestling with your very own identity. 00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:37.359 Always, simultaneously, because that's what it means to be a creature who was made by a creator. 00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:43.599 And when we learn about the creator, we're always learning something more about ourselves. 00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:48.559 And when we learn about ourselves, we're likewise learning something more about God. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:32:02.880 And so that's why my two go-to Bible study questions when we read scripture is what is who is God revealing himself to be? 00:32:03.279 --> 00:32:06.960 And then what does this mean about being human? 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:08.720 Those are the two questions. 00:32:08.880 --> 00:32:10.640 Who is God revealing himself to be? 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:13.839 And then in light of that, what does it mean about being human? 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:24.000 So when we look at who Jesus is, we have to ask the question, what does that say about me? 00:32:25.119 --> 00:32:27.519 What does that mean about me? 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:36.559 Because the question of God is not just a question of God out here, it's a question of relationship. 00:32:37.759 --> 00:32:40.079 How do we relate to that God? 00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:44.079 That's where we find the truth of our identity. 00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:46.960 So let's move through. 00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:51.519 These very same, this very same verse with this question. 00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:54.160 What does it say about being human? 00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:56.559 Son of God. 00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:05.920 The answer to our humanity is nothing less than being restored to God Himself. 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:10.960 What is the highest cry of the human heart? 00:33:11.119 --> 00:33:15.920 What is the deepest longing that all our other longings point towards? 00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:19.599 What is the true desire of the human heart? 00:33:19.759 --> 00:33:22.799 It is to be united with God. 00:33:23.920 --> 00:33:28.720 It is to behold the love of the Father gazing back at you. 00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:30.720 It is to hear those words. 00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:34.000 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:45.200 It is to be united to the highest good, the greatest glory, the most wonderful being in all of existence, the one where we are meant to find our greatest joy is in God. 00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:53.519 So when God reveals himself to us, he reveals himself to us in the most knowable way possible. 00:33:54.720 --> 00:34:06.559 Not as an answer to a riddle, not as a problem of that that not as a paragraph that answers some philosophical problem. 00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:13.360 See, he's not in the he's not in the forms of Plato, he's not in the particulars of Aristotle. 00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:16.159 The answer to the meaning of life isn't 42. 00:34:17.360 --> 00:34:20.880 Not a lot of people reading Jekyr's Guide to the Galaxy. 00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:29.360